I’m sitting at my desk (yes, I did make it home on time yesterday), and installing programs on a different computer. My old computer was toast. Fortunately, our great IT guys were able to recover all data. Thanks Jim and Shane! It’s just the hassle of having to load all the personalized stuff again that takes so much time. Even though loading up a new computer can be frustrating and time consuming, I have been reflecting on how much time this little machine has saved me over the years. With the assistance of my Bible software and the Internet, I can do in minutes what would have taken me many hours to do years ago.

When Cheryl and I moved to Central America, we often traveled on turbo props out of New Orleans, bouncing all the way with the use of “barf bags” all too common. Now, I can hop on a jet in Buenos Aires in the middle of summer and disembark into a snowy scene in Kansas City only hours later. Yes, I know I complain about a ten hour coach flight from BA to Houston, but consider how hard this trip would have been only 20 or 30 years ago. It would have been necessary to overnight in a place like Panama City.

I fought computers when I moved to the Sates in 1984. When someone showed me a primitive version of a Bible program that could search for all the verses in the Bible that contained the word “love,” for example, in only 20-30 minutes, I couldn’t believe it! I was hooked, and I’ve never looked back. Technology has changed my life. I grow impatient when it takes more than a nano-second to load something, and I get frustrated when I have to set up a new computer. Would I want to go back? No way!

We naturally fight change, don’t we? Some change can be bad, but many changes are for the best, even though they can bring some frustrations. What’s one of the hardest things to do in a church, or an individual life? Change. But, change is often for the better. Think about it.